Brexit news – live: Boris Johnson secures New Zealand trade deal amid increased threat to MPs

The trade debate has now wrapped up, with the Commons turning to an urgent question on Covid from shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth.

More from the trade debate going on in the Commons now. Economic growth and tackling climate challenges go “hand-in-hand” when negotiating trade deals, the international trade secretary has said, amid concerns over Britain’s priorities.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell, addressing Anne-Marie Trevelyan, asks in the Commons: “In the light that the secretary of state has not denied her department’s leaked document, which is saying it is prioritising economic growth over climate protection, how will she make representations at Cop26 when we hear we’re way off target for 1.5C and placing the climate emergency at the top of her priorities as opposed to something she really doesn’t believe in?”

Ms Trevelyan, in her reply, says somewhat vaguely: “As I said earlier, economic growth and tackling climate challenges go hand-in-hand.”

She added the UK is “leading the way” in finding solutions.

More on the conversation around MPs’ safety now, after a former police chief said it could be helped if various organisations – including internet companies – crack down on online abuse.

Sir Peter Fahy, ex-chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier:

“It is also about the police, the institutions and the internet companies tackling a situation where it appears that threats to kill have almost been normalised and decriminalised when, in fact, they are a serious criminal offence.”

Labour MP Diane Abbott, a former shadow home secretary, also appeared on the show to discuss the abuse she has faced during her career. She said:

“The reason that people can be so abusive and make these violent threats is they have end-to-end anonymity.

“Of course people ought to be able to post anonymously in the first instance, but the tech companies should hold their name and address so that if the police need to investigate, they can do it.

“At present, [with] many of the threats against me, the police can’t investigate them because of anonymity.”

Health minister Ed Argar was called out earlier for the government’s mismatched stance on face masks after Sajid Javid told people last night to wear coverings in enclosed spaces, to meet people outside and to allow ventilation inside via open windows.

The twist is the health secretary gave the Covid briefing in a windowless room after weeks of criticism that the majority of Tory MPs appear to sit in the Commons maskless more often than not.

LBC’s Nick Ferrari confronted Mr Argar on the issue earlier.

“Were you wearing your mask in the Commons this week?” Mr Ferrari asked the government minister, to which Mr Argar said, yes, “for the most part” he was wearing a covering.

Asked why “so many” Tories were not doing the same during the tributes to Sir David Amess in the Commons on Monday, Mr Argar said the government “was not at the point of mandation” and that his colleagues would “exercise their own judgement”.

Petrol station stock levels have fully recovered from the crisis which began last month, new figures show.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said filling station storage tanks were an average of 45 per cent full at the end of the day on Sunday – the highest since May.

Stock levels dropped to a low of 15 per cent on 25 September due to panic-buying of fuel seen across the UK.

London and the southeast were the slowest regions to recover from the shortage, but their petrol station storage tanks were an average of 42 per cent and 45 per cent full on Sunday, the data shows.

Asia is “taking us to the cleaners” on trade deals, the shadow trade secretary has said.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry said:

“I’m just reading the figures from her own department. And there is a real problem that this is now the third Asia-Pacific agreement in a row, Japan, Australia and now New Zealand, where more than 80 per cent of the projected growth in trade, by her own department, has gone to exporters in those other countries, and less than 20 per cent has gone to exports to the UK.

“The government says that they’re tilting to Asia. I have to say, I think that Asia is taking us to the cleaners.”

Ms Thornberry added: “Enough is enough”, saying: “What we need is trade deals that deliver for Britain.”

Trade minister Penny Mordaunt said resolutely: “£9 trillion. That is what these deals and ultimately the CPTPP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership] will mean to this country. Yes, we have three deals and we’re going to get more deals.” She added:

“We’re going to grow these markets. That is the whole point of us leaving the EU. That is the whole point of us formulating this plan for global Britain. And it will increase growth and prosperity in this country.”

Thornberry says the uncertainty around British farming jobs provides “yet more evidence” that an independent inquiry into it and others should take place.

Quoting ex-trade secretary Liz Truss, the Labour MP said Conservatives previously pledged: “We have no intention of ever striking a deal which doesn’t benefit our farmers.”

She also asked Trevelyan to confirm the new Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) would be permitted to scrutinise both the NZ and Australia deals.

Without saying what they were resolutely, Trevelyan appears to concede the TAC will be given some powers to do so.

“The new TAC will be charged with some very clear direction and an independence for them to be able to scrutinise both Australia, New Zealand and all the other trade deals we are looking to strike in the months and years ahead,” she said.

Shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry has challenged the secretary of state on previous forecasts “by her own department” that a deal like the new UK-NZ one could lead to a reduced number of jobs in the British agricultural industry.

She said: “On page 54 of the Trade Partners June 2020 paper on the strategic approach to free trade with New Zealand, it forecasts that an agreement on the lines that I understand the Government has announced last night will cause, I quote, ‘a reduction in output and employment in the UK agriculture sector’. Can I ask the secretary of state if that remains her department’s forecast for the impact of last night’s deal?”

Responding, Anne-Marie Trevelyan is careful not to answer the question directly.

“I am very confident that the deal we struck will provide the opportunity for our wonderful food producers to continue to sell their food across the globe and, as we make more deals, create new markets for them also,” she tells the Commons.

She also says she will be delivering a more-detailed statement on the deal later today.

International trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan is now speaking in the House of Commons, where MPs are asking her questions about the newly-announced New Zealand trade deal.

Dominic Raab has branded his own suggestion of using ex-prisoners to solve crises such as the HGV driver shortage a “win-win” and “smart politics”.

The justice secretary revealed this morning he wants to draft in British ex-offenders and even existing inmates to support the economy instead of relying on the “old addiction” of foreign labour.

His comments come amid an ongoing dispute about who or what is to blame for the supply chain crisis affecting the UK, which is largely thought to have been caused by Brexit and a resultant lack of lorry drivers.

Mr Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, said he believes the offer of a second chance will encourage ex and current inmates away from a life of crime and protect the public.

He told LBC radio earlier:

“The call centres, the HGV companies, those with shortages, those who are recruiting and can’t get British staff from outside prison to do the job – why shouldn’t we actually say, do you know what, this is plugging some staff shortages, this is helping these people to go straight and this is cutting reoffending?

“So I say to the critics, look, I can demonstrate it works, this is making your community and the public safer – this is just win-win. It’s smart policy and it’s smart politics.”

Prisoners serving long-term and life sentences are not due to be part of the scheme, he stressed. But, on those eligible, Mr Raab said:

“If we give ex-offenders, the vast majority of whom will be released from prison, if we give them skin in the game, if we give them hope, if we give them something to lose, they’re much much more likely to go straight and that’s good for society, it’s good for the public because it cuts crime.”